Russiagate Is Really Finished

After two years and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee is approaching the end of its investigation into the 2016 election, having uncovered no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to both Democrats and Republicans on the committee. ...Democrats and other Trump opponents have long believed that special counsel Robert Mueller and Congressional investigators would unearth new and more explosive evidence of Trump campaign coordination with Russians. Mueller may yet do so, although Justice Department and Congressional sources say they believe that he, too, is close to wrapping up his investigation.

Russiagate conspiracy theorist Marcy Wheeler countered by arguing that a conspiracy had been proven when Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort admitted to handing out polling data to some Ukrainian/Russian contact to curry favor with some Russian oligarch he owned money. But Manafort's crimes, which he plead guilty for on September 14 2018, had nothing to do with "Russia" or with Trump and only peripherally with his election campaign:

On Friday, Manafort, who was chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign from June to August 2016, pleaded guilty in federal district court in Washington to two charges of conspiracy against the United States—one involving a lobbying scheme that involved financial crimes and foreign-agent registration violations, and the other involving witness tampering. In the course of his plea, Manafort also admitted guilt on bank-fraud charges on which a federal jury in Virginia hung last month.

Marcy and others held out hope that the Mueller investigation would come up with an indictment that would justify the utter nonsense she and other Russagaters promoted for over two years. Just two week ago former CIA director John Brennan, who likely conspiredwith British intelligence to frame Trump with the Russia affair, said (vid) that he expected further indictments:

During an appearance on MSNBC on March 5, Brennan predicted that Mueller would issue indictments related to a “criminal conspiracy” involving Trump or his associates’ activities during the 2016 election.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III submitted a long-awaited report to Attorney General William P. Barr on Friday, marking the end of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump. ...A senior Justice Department official said the special counsel has not recommended any further indictments — a revelation that buoyed Trump’s supporters, even as other Trump-related investigations continue in other parts of the Justice Department. ...None of the Americans charged by Mueller are accused of conspiring with Russia to interfere in the election — the central question of Mueller’s work. Instead, they pleaded guilty to various crimes, including lying to the FBI.

The investigation ended without charges for a number of key figures who had long been under Mueller’s scrutiny ...

Conclusions from the Mueller report will be released by the Justice Department over the next days.

That the Russiagaters were wrong for falling for the bullshit peddled in the Steele dossier and the "Russian hacking" lies of the snakeoil salesmen Clapper and Brennan was obvious long ago. In June 2017 we pointed to a long Washington Post piece on alleged Russian election hacking and remarked:

Reading that piece it becomes clear (but is never said) that the sole source for that August 2016 Brennan claim of "Russian hacking" is the absurd Steele dossier some ex-MI6 dude created for too much money as opposition research against Trump. The only other "evidence" for "Russian hacking" is the Crowdstrike report on the DNC "hack". Crowdstrike has a Ukrainian nationalist agenda, was hired by the DNC, had to retract other "Russian hacking" claims and no one else was allowed to take a look at the DNC servers. Said differently: The whole "Russian hacking" claims are solely based on "evidence" of two fake reports.

The Steele dossier was fake opposition research peddled by the Clinton campaign, John McCain and a bunch of anti-Trump national security types. The still unproven claim of "Russian hacking" was designed to divert from the fact that Clinton and the DNC colluded to cheat Bernie Sanders out of the nomination. The stupid claim that commercial click-bait from a company in Leningrad was a "Russian influence campaign" was designed to explain Clinton's election loss to the other worst-candidate-ever. The "Russiagate" investigation was designed to prevent Trump from finding better relations with Russia as he had promised during his campaign.

All were somewhat successful because some media and some bloggers were happy to sell such nonsense without putting it into the big picture.

It is high time to start a deep investigation into Brennan, Clapper, Comey and the Clinton campaign and to uncover the conspiracy that led to the Steele dossier, the FBI investigation following from it and all the other bullshit that evolved from that investigation.

As for Marcy Wheeler, Rachel Maddow and other dimwits who peddled the Russiagate nonsense I agree with the advice Catlin Johnstone gives:

Every politician, every media figure, every Twitter pundit and everyone who swallowed this moronic load of bull spunk has officially discredited themselves for life. ...The people who steered us into two years of Russiavape insanity are the very last people anyone should ever listen to ever again when determining the future direction of our world.

Among my friends who hate Trump their is a deep desire to grasp anything that would destroy him. The media played the phony collusion story relentlessly and the goyim ate it up. People who had some intellect parked it to get Trump, others who did not understand how the system works believed the story.

Clearly this was operation crossfire hurricane. Trump was the hurricane blowing in and the phony collusion story was the crossfire with the top DOJ officials pushing the story to the hilt. By going on the attack they sucked out all of the oxygen out of the room.

I believe they feared any investigation against their coverup of the real collusion between Russian oligarchs and the Clinton foundation. The "lock her up" chant frightened them. Basically the best defense is a good offense.

The empire cannot police itself, it can only protect itself and its primary backers.

I wish I could agree with your assessment of how these Russiagate fools have discredited themselves for life, but as we've seen with the Iraq war the political/media elite are never punished for their crimes and failures. Only those that oppose the crimes are ever punished, Phil Donahue never got his show back after he was fired for opposing the Media's drive for the Iraq war, Assange is still imprisoned without trial, Manning is back in jail for contempt of court which will probably be a reoccurring weapon to be used against her for the rest of her life.

Conversely, those individuals that committed the supreme crime against the world are stronger than ever; John Bolton is back in power as if the Iraq war disaster never happened, Elliott Abrams has been forgiven by the Congress he lied to and is back in power planning another dirty war against Venezuela, relations with Russia are now wrecked for at LEAST another 10 years (maybe 20 years or more). Brennan, Clapper, Comey and the Clinton gang will never be punished and will instead be lionized for the rest of their lives since all of the media elite is complicit in their crimes. Rachel Madcow, Chris Matthews, Brian Williams and the rest of the MSNBC/CNN crowed will continue to be "Guided by the beauty of our weapons" for the glory of their sponsors. The Alternative media that brought many of these crimes to light is now being strangled by a censorship imposed by the very criminals they exposed. All of the vested Political/Economic interests in the current status quo will quash the needed reforms and the world community will suffer - things will get worst, things can only get worse from here.

and yet they will keep going and "fail upward" as is the usual progression of beltway and manhattan types. it certainly worked for abrams and bolton over their long careers as incompetent serial killers. even bush II has been slowly rehabilitated by the very "resistance" who loathed him after the 9/11 honeymoon was over.

i had on the bbc's US nightly news thing last night...they were coming on air just as this was "breaking news". they stated outright that they had no idea what was in it (at that point even trump didn't) yet filled the next 30 minutes with "we don't know what's in it but it's in and we assume BOOM". that's literally all they had and they said it over and over in 40 different ways. because there's nothing else going on in the world right now i suppose.

one of the bits was prepared by a field "reporter" who within 5 or 6 sentences of his stock footage fluff said "derpa derp when the russians hacked the DNC and handed it over to wikileaks diddly derp". they stated this as fact and once again exemplified the worst part of arguing with stupid assholes: even when you've proven them 100% objectively, empirically wrong...they just don't care. for them reality is a matter of consensus and as long as enough other idiots exist to keep the story going it's "true".

Back in November of 2016, the American people were so fed up with the neoliberal oligarchy that everyone knows really runs the country that they actually elected Donald Trump president. They did this fully aware that Trump was a repulsive, narcissistic ass clown who bragged about “grabbing women by the pussy” and jabbered about building “a big, beautiful wall” and making the Mexican government pay for it. They did this fully aware of the fact that Donald Trump had zero experience in any political office whatsoever, was a loudmouth bigot, and was possibly out of his gourd on amphetamines half the time. The American people did not care. They were so disgusted with being conned by arrogant, two-faced, establishment stooges like the Clintons, the Bushes, and Barack Obama that they chose to put Donald Trump in office, because, fuck it, what did they have to lose?

The oligarchy that runs the country responded to the American people’s decision by inventing a completely cock-and-bull story about Donald Trump being a Russian agent who the American people were tricked into voting for by nefarious Russian mind-control operatives, getting every organ of the liberal corporate media to disseminate and relentlessly promote this story on a daily basis for nearly three years, and appointing a special prosecutor to conduct an official investigation in order to lend it the appearance of legitimacy. Every component of the ruling establishment (i.e., the government, the media, the intelligence agencies, the liberal intelligentsia, et al.) collaborated in an unprecedented effort to remove an American president from office based on a bunch of made-up horseshit … which kind of amounts to an attempted soft coup.

It now appears that the world will see that the so-called "Russia Gate" investigation was nothing more than the pro-Clintonista BS that Trump always claimed it was. The Clintons once again, both Bill and Hillary, have managed to raise a vicious, loud mouthed thug in the White House to the status of some kind of martyr. What a country America it is. One thing should be clear however. Any politician or media pundit that towed the pro-Clintonista line should be barred from public office or the media forever. As for the Clintons, both Bill and Hillary, they should be treated like the creeps they are: corrupt, opportunistic and power hungry. Like Typhoid Mary, they infect everything they touch. There is one difference between Typhoid Mary, and Bill and Hillary: Typhoid Mary didn't realize what she was doing, the Clintons did!

I have close friends that have been on the MSNBC/Maddow Kool-Ade for years. Constantly declaring Mueller was on the verge of closing in on Trump and associates for treason with the Russians. On Friday night after dinner at our home, the TV was tuned to MSNBC so they could watch their spiritual leader Rachel Maddow....what a pitiful sight (both Maddow and friends). No one was going to jail or be impeached for conspiring with Putin.....how on how could that be true. Putin personally stole the election from Clinton and THEY are just going to let him walk was the declaration a few feet from my chair. Normally, I would recommend grieve counseling, but they are still my friends ... now they can go back to blaming Bernie for Clinton's loss. Maybe I will recommend grieve counseling!

@dltravers: Apart from the "goyim" you may be right.. But if you want to claim with that Trumps opponents where under the pressure of the Zionists, you got it all wrong man.. ;) No presidents been more under the Zionist thumb than DJT.
That ofc doesnt make Hillarys Saudi and Muslim brotherhood connections better.. ;)

Anyway, cheers to the end of this BS! And lets hope that Trump has now payed off his debts with Adelson now that he secured Bibis reelection. But dont hold your breath.. ;)

"very politician, every media figure, every Twitter pundit and everyone who swallowed this moronic load of bull spunk has officially discredited themselves for life".

I wish so, but that's not how the exceptional nation of US of A works, as demonstrated by the Iraq WMD fiasco case. In fact, very politician, every media figure, every Twitter pundit (about Saddam's WMD" BS) is alive and well, spreading more BS. What is even more depressing is that the huge chunk of this exceptional nation cannot have enough of the BS and is chanting "give me more, give me more...".

However some good things have come out of the investigation. It cost taxpayers 2 million but recouped over 25 million from those convicted of fraud and tax evasion.
And its not over, Mueller has sent 5 to 7 referrals or evidence/witnesses to SDNY, EDNY, DC, EDVA, plus the National Security and Criminal Divisions. These from information turned up crimes unrelated to his Russia probe and allegedly concerning Trump or his family business, a cadre of his advisers and associates. They are being conducted by officials from Los Angeles to Brooklyn.

The bad news is it exposed how wide spread and corrupt the US has become...in private and political circles.

The other bad news is most of the Trump lovers and Trump haters are too stupid to drop their partisan and personal blinders and recognize that ....ITS THE CORRUPTION STUPID.

b you have repeatedly made the case that this whole thing was kicked off by the Steele dossier. That is factually incorrect. The first investigation was already running before the dossier ever materialized. That investigation spawned the special prosecutors investigation when Trump fired Comey and then went on TV and said it was because of the Russia investigation. The Russia investigation was originally kicked off by Papadopoulos drinking with the the Australian ambassador and bragging about what the campaign was doing with Russia. Remember the original evidence was presented to the leadership of both the House and the Senate when they were both controlled by the Republican party and every one that was briefed came out on camera and said the Justice dept was doing the right thing in pursuing this.

I think the Democrats should lose Hillary down a deep hole and not let her near any of the coming campaign events. But this came about because of the actions of the people around Trump. Not because Hillary controls the US government from some secret bunker some where.

One could argue Russiagate was on the contrary quite a success. The Elites behind the scheme never believed it would end up with Trump's impeachment. What they did accomplish though is a deflection via "Fake News" from the Dem's election failures & shenanigans and refocus the attention towards the DNC's emerging pedophilia scandals (Weiner, the Podesta's, Alefantis, etc) & suspicious deaths (Seth Rich, etc) towards a dead-end with the added corollary of preventing US/Ru rapprochement for more then half an administration..

The deeply tragic thing about this for the media, the neocons, and the liberals is that they brought it upon themselves by moving the goalposts continuously. If, after Hillary lost, they had stuck to the "Russia hacked WikiLeaks" lie, then they probably have sufficient proof from their perspective and the perspective of most of the public that Russia helped Trump win. In this case it would be remembered by the Democrats like the stolen election of 2000 (albeit the fact that it was a lie this time). They had multiple opportunities to jump off this train. Even the ridiculous DNI report could have been their final play: "Russia helped Trump." Instead of going with 2000 they went with 2001, aka 9-11, with the same neocon fearmongers playing the pipe organ of lies. As soon as they accepted the Steele Dossier, moving the focus to "collusion" they discredited themselves forever. Many of the lead proponents were discredited Iraq war hawks. Except this time it was actually worse because the whole media bought into it. This leaves an interesting conundrum: there were at least some pro-Afghanistan anti-Iraq warmongers who rejected the Bush premise in the media, so they took over the airwaves for about two years before the real swamp creatures returned. This time, it will be harder to issue a mea culpa. They made this appear like 9-11, well, this time the truthers have won, and they are doomed.

Societies collapse when their systems (institutions) become compromised. When they are no longer capable of meeting the needs of the population, or of adapting to a changing world.

Societal systems become compromised when their decision making structures, which are designed to ensure that decisions are taken in the best interest of the society as a whole, are captured by people who have no legitimacy to make the decisions, and who make decisions for the benefit of themselves, at the expense of society as a whole.

Russia-gate is a flagrant example of how the law enforcement and intelligence institutions have been captured. Their top officials, no longer loyal to their country or their institution, but rather to an international elite (including the likes of Soros, the Clintons, and far beyond) have used these institutions in an attempt to delegitimize a constitutionally elected president and to over turn an election. This is no less than treason of the highest order.

Indeed, the actions much of the Washington establishment, as well as a number international actors, since Trump was elected seems suspiciously like one of the 'Color Revolutions' that are visited upon any country who's citizens did not 'vote right' the first time. Over-throw the vote, one way or another, until the result that is wanted is achieved. None of these 'Color Revolutions' has resulted in anything good for the country involved. Rather they have resulted in the destruction of each country's institutions, and eventually societal collapse.

In the U.S. the capturing of systems' decision making structures is not limited to Russia-Gate and the overturning of the electoral system. Their are other prime examples:

- The capture of the Air Transport Safety System by Boeing that has resulted in the recent 737 Max crashes, and likely the destruction of the reputation of the U.S. aviation industry, in an industry where reputation is everything.

- The capture of the Financial Regulatory System, by Wall Street, who in 1998 rewrote the rules in their own favor, against the best interests of the population as a whole. The result was the 2008 financial crisis and the inability of the U.S. economy to effectively recover from that crisis.

- This capture is also seen in international diplomatic systems, where the U.S. is systematically by-passing or subverting international law and international institutions, (the U.N. I.C.J., I.N.F. treaty) etc., and in doing so is destroying these institutions and the ability to maintain peace.

The result of system (institution) capture is difficult to see at first. But, in time, the damage adds up, the ability of the systems to meet the needs of the population disappears, and societal decline sets in.

It looks today like the the societal decline is acellerating. Russia-gate is just one of many indicators.

Your comment on the BBC is on the mild side. I listen to it when I drive in in the morning and also get annoyed sometimes. When it is reporting on the Westminster bubble it is factually accurate as far as I can judge. Apart from that, and particularly in the case of the BBC news, we're in information control territory.

But accept that and the BBC turns into quite a valuable resource. It's well staffed, has good contacts, and picks up what the politicians want us to think with great accuracy.

In that respect it's better than the newspapers and better also than the American media. Those news outlets have several masters of which the political elite is only one. The BBC has just the one master, the political elite, and is as sensitive as a stethoscope to the shifting currents within that political elite.

So I wouldn't despise the BBC entirely. It tells us how the politicians want us to think. In telling us that it sometimes gives us a bearing on what the politicians et al are doing and what they intend to do.

The never-Trumpers will never let their dreams die. Of course, they never oppose Trump on substantive issues like attempting a coup in Venezuela, withdrawing from the INF treaty, supporting the nazis in Ukraine, supporting Al Qaeda forces in Syria, etc. But somehow they're totally against him and ready to haul out the latest stupid thing he said as their daily fodder for conversation...

renfro @ 10 said;"The Dems were stupid to gin up the Russian collusion."

Uh no, just doing their job of distracting the public, while ignoring the real issues the
American workers care about. You know, the things DJT promised the workers, but has never delivered.(better health care for all, ending the useless wars overseas, an infrastructure
plan to increase good paying jobs), to name just a few.

The corporate Dems( which is the lions share of them), are bought and paid for to distract, and they've done it well.

The Bushes, the Clintons, the Obamas, and most who have come before, are of the same ilk.

I profoundly disagree with the notion that Russiagate had anything to do with Hillary's collusion with the DNC. Gosh, that is naive at best.

1) Hillary didn't need to collude against Sanders - the additional money that she got from doing so was small change compared the to overall amount she raised for her campaign.

2) Sanders was a long-time friend of the Clintons. He boasted that he's known Hillary for over 25 years.

3) Sanders was a sheepdog meant to keep progressives in the Democratic Party. He was never a real candidate. He refused to attack Hillary on character issues and remained loyal even after Hillary-DNC collusion was revealed.

When Sanders had a chance to total disgrace Hillary, he refused to do so. Hillary repeatedly said that she had NEVER changed for vote for money but Warren had proven that she had: Hillary changed her vote on the Bankruptcy Bill for money from the credit card industry.

4) Hillary didn't try to bury her collusion with the DNC (as might be expected), instead she used it to alienate progressive voters by bring Debra Wasserman-Shultz into her campaign.

5) Hillary also alienated or ignored other important constituencies: she wouldn't support an increase in the minimum wage but accepted $750,000 from Goldman Sachs for a speech; she took the black vote for granted and all-but berated a Black Lives Matters activist; and she called whites "deplorables".

Hillary threw the race to her OTHER long-time friend in the race: Trump. The Deep-State wanted a nationalist and that's just what they got.

6) Hillary and the DNC has shown NO REMORSE whatsoever about colluding with Sanders and Sanders has shown no desire whatsoever to hold them accountable.

IMO Russiagate (Russian influence on Trump) and accusations of "Russian meddling" in the election are part of the same McCarthyist psyop to direct hate at Russia and stamp out any dissent. Trump probably knowingly, played into the Deep State's psyop by:

> hiring Manafort;

> calling on Russia to release Hillary's emails;

> talking about Putin in a admiring way.

And it accomplished much more than hating on Russia:

> served as excuse for Trump to do Deep State bidding;

> distracted from the real meddling in the 2016 election;

> served as a device for settling scores:

- Assange isolated
(Wikileaks was termed an "agent of a foreign power");

- Michael Flynn forced to resign
(because he spoke to the Russian ambassador).

The US owes Russia an official apology. And also Russia should get its stolen buildings and the consulate back. And maybe to get paid some compensation for the injustice and for damages suffered. Without that, the Russiagate is not really over.

If memory serves me correctly, the initial accusations of collusion between DJT's presidential campaign and the Kremlin came from Crowdstrike, the cybersecurity company hired by the Democratic National Committee to oversee the security of its computers and databases. This was done to deflect attention away from Hillary Clinton's illegal use of a personal server at home to conduct government business during her time as US State Secretary (2009 - 2013), business which among other things included plotting with the US embassy in Libya (and the then US ambassador Chris Stevens) to overthrow Muammar Gaddhafi's government in 2011, and conspiring also to overthrow the elected government in Honduras in 2010.

The business of Christopher Steele's dossier (part or even most of which could have been written by Sergei Skripal, depending on who you read) and George Papadopoulos' conversation with the half-wit Australian "diplomat" Alexander Downer in London were brought in to bolster the Russiagate claims and make them look genuine.

As B says, Crowdstrike does indeed have a Ukrainian nationalist agenda: its founder and head Dmitri Alperovich is a Senior Fellow at The Atlantic Council (the folks who fund Bellingcat's crapaganda) and which itself receives donations from Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. Crowdstrike has some association with one of the Chalupa sisters (Alexandra or Andrea - I can't be bothered dredging through DuckDuckGo to check which - but one of them was employed by the DNC) who donated money to the Maidan campaign that overthrew Viktor Yanukovych's government in Kiev in February 2014.

thanks b... i would like russiagate to be finished, but i tend to see it much like kadath @2.. the link @2 is worth the read as a reminder of how far the usa has sunk in being a nation of passive neocons... emptywheel can't say no to this as witnessed by her article from today.. ) as a consequence, i agree with @14 dh-mtl's conclusion - "It looks today like the the societal decline is acellerating. Russia-gate is just one of many indicators."

the irony for those of us who don't live in the usa, is we are going to have watch this sad state of affairs continue to unravel, as the usa and the west continue to unravel in tandem.. the msm as corporate mouthpiece is not going to be tell us anything of relevance.. instead it will be continued madcow, or maddow bullshit 24-7... amd as kadath notes @2 - if any of them are to step up as a truth teller - they will be marginalized or silenced... so long as the mainstream swallow what they are fed in the msm, the direction of the titanic is still on track...

What Difference Does it Make?
They don't really need Russia-gate anymore. It bought them time. As we speak nuclear bombers make runs near Russian borders every day and Russian consulates get attacked with heavy weaponry in the EU and no Russian outlet is even making a reference,while Israel is ready to move heavy artillery in to Golan targeting Russia bases in Syria and China raking all their deals for civilian projects in the Med.
Russia got stuffed in the corner getting all the punches.

What a horrible witch hunt, but the msm will keep on denying and keep creating new hoaxes about Trump, Russia.
Heck the media even deny there was no collussion, they keep spinning it in different ways!

During the fiasco, the Outlaw US Empire provided excellent proof to the world that it does everything it accused Russia of doing and more, while Russia's cred has greatly risen. Meanwhile, there're numerous other crimes Trump, his associates, Clinton, her associates--like Pelosi--ought to be impeached, removed from office, arrested, then tried in court, which is diametrically opposed to the current--false--narrative.

The people who steered us into two years of Russiavape insanity are the very last people anyone should ever listen to ever again when determining the future direction of our world.

Yes, absolutely. And not just regarding the world's future, but even if you happen to be in the same building with one of them and he/she bursts into your already smoke-filled room yelling that the house is on fire.

Btw, whatever authority has ever ruled that "ex-MI6 dude" Steele (who doesn't remind me of steel at all, but rather of a certain nondescript entity named Anthony Blair) is in fact merely 'EX'? He himself? The organisation? The Queen perhaps?

Expose them at every opportunity, they should not get away with this like nothing happend:

If you think a single Russiagate conspiracist is going to be held accountable for media malpractice, you clearly haven’t been awake the past 2 decades. No one will pay for being wrong. This profession is as corrupt & rotten as the kleptocracy it serves

defeatism isn’t the answer—should remind & mock these hacks every opportunity. Just need to be aware of the beast we’re up against.

Russia gate was both a diversion from the real collusions (Russian Mafia , China and Israel) and a clever ruse to allow Trump to back off from his campaign promise to improve relations with Russia. US policy toward Russia is no different under Trump than it was during Obamas administration. Exactly what the Russia Gaters wanted and Trump delivered.

That Mueller could find nothing more than some tax/money laundering/perjury charges in which the culprits in the end get pardoned is hardly surprising given his history. Want something covered up? Put Mueller on it.

To show how afraid Trump was of Mueller he appointed his long term friend Barr as AJ and pretended he didn’t know how close they were when it came out. There is no lie people wont believe. Lol

Meanwhile Trumps Russian Mafia connections stay under the radar in MSM, Trump continues as Bibi’s sock puppet, the fake trade war with China continues as Ivanka is rolling in China trademarks .

The Rothschild puppet that bailed out Trumps casinos as Commerce Secretary overseeing negotiations that will open the doors for more US and EU (they willy piggy back on the deal like hyenas) jobs to go to China (this time in financial/services) and stronger IPR protections that will facilitate this transfer, and will provide companies more profits in which to buyback stocks but wont bring manufacturing jobs back.

The collusion story has been hit badly and it will likely lose its momentum, but I wonder how far reaching this loss of momentum is. There are many variants. The 'unwitting accomplice' is an oxymoron which isn't finished yet. The Russians hacking the election: not over. The Russians sowing discord and division. Not over. Credibility of the Russiagate champions overall? Not clear. Some could take a serious hit. Brennan and other insiders who made it onto cable tv?
It is possible that the whole groupthink about Russiagate changes drastically
and that 'the other claims' also lose their credibility but it's far from certain. After years of building up tension Russia's policies are also changing. I think they have shown restraint but their paranoia and aggressiveness is also increasing and some claims will become true after all.

Those who have been holding their breath for two years can finally exhale. I guess the fever of hysteria will have to be attended a while longer. A malady of this kind does not easily die out overnight. Those who have been taken in, and duped for so long, can not so easily recover. The weight of so much cognitive dissonance presses down on them like a boulder. The dust of the stampeded herd behind Russiagate is enough paralyze the will of those who have succumbed.

As Joseph Conrad once wrote, "The ways of human progress are inscrutable."

Russiagate is a pendulum, it reached the dead point, it would hange in the air for a moment, then it would start swinging right backwards at full speed crashign everything in the way!

It would be revealed, it was Russia who paid Muller to start that hysteria and stole money from American tax-payers and make America an international laughing stock. "Putin benefited from it", highly likely!

Muller's investigation is paid for with Manafort's seized cash and property and Manafort has made Yanukovich king of Ukraine, so Manafort is Putin's agent, so Muller is working of Putin's money, so it was Putin's collusion everything that Muller is doing! Highly likely.

There is no "Liberal Media". Those whom claim to be Liberal and yet support the Warmonger Democratic Party (Republican lite) are frauds. Liberalism does not condone war and it most certainly does not support wars of aggression - especially those wars waged against defenseless nations. Neither can liberalism support trade sanctions or the subjugation of Palestinians in the Apartheid State of ISreal.

We must be very careful with the words we choose, in order to paint the correct conjuncture and not to throw the bathtub with the baby inside.

It's one thing to say Bernie Sanders is not a revolutionary; it's another completely different thing to say he was in cahoots with the Clintons.

If Bernie Sanders really was a "friend" of the Clintons, then he wouldn't even have disputed the primaries against Hillary. Not only he chose to do so, but he only didn't win because the DNC threw all its weight against him.

Now, I agree he's not a revolutionary socialist. He's an imperialist who believes the spoils of the empire should be also used to build a Scandinavian-style Welfare State for the American people only. A cynic would tell you this would make him a Nazi without the race theme, but you have to keep in mind societies move in a dialectical patern, not a linear one: if you preach for "democratic socialism", you're bringing the whole package, not only the bits you want.

I believe the rise of Bernie Sanders had an overall positive impact in the world as it exists. Americans are more aware of their own contradictions (more enlightened) now than before he disputed those faithful primaries of 2016. And the most important ingredient for that, in my opinion, was the fact he was crushed by both parties; that the "establishment" acted in unison not to let him get near the WH. That was a didactic moment for the American people (or a signficant part of it).

But I agree Russiagate went well beyond just covering the Clintons' dirt in the DNC.

It may have be born like that, but, if that was the case, the elites quickly realized it had other, ampler practical uses. The main one, in my opinion, was to drive a wedge between Trump's Clash of Civilizations's doctrine -- which perceives China as the main long term enemy, and Russia as a natural ally of the West -- and the public opinon. The thing is most of the American elite is far too dependent on China's productive chain; Russia is not, and can be balkanized.

There is a funny video compilation of the TV talking heads predicting the end of Trump, new bombshells, impeachment, etc., over the last two years.
Unfortunately, the same sort of compilation could be made of sane people predicting "this new information means the end of Russiagate" over the same time period.
The truth is that the truth doesn't matter, only the propaganda, and it has not stopped, only spun onto new hysteria.

As others have said, hard core Russiagaters will likely not be convinced that they have been wrong all along. They have too much emotional investment in the grand conspiracy theory to simply let it go. Rather, they will forever point to what they believe are genuine bits of evidence and curse Mueller for not following the leads. And the Dems in the House of Representatives will waste more time and resources on pointless investigations in an effort to keep the public sufficiently distracted from more important matters, such as the endless wars and coups that they support. A pox on all their houses, both Democrats and Republicans.

Ben's and other comments might make this a little bit superfluous but it's short.

A case of divide and conquer against the population

This time it was a fabricated scandal.

Continued control over "facts" and narratives, the opportunity for efficient misdirection and distraction, stealing and wasting other people's time and effort, spurious disagreements, wearing down relations.

The illusion of choice, (false) opposition, blinded "oversight", and mythical claims concerning a civilian government (in the case of the US: "of, for, and by" or something like that).

Who knew or knows is irrelevant as long as the show goes on. There's nothing to prove anything significant about who if anyone may or may not be behind the curtain and thus on towards the next big or small scandal we go because people will be dissatisfied and hungry and ready to bite as hard as possible on some other bait for or against something.

Maybe "Russiagate" was impeccably engineered or maybe it organically outcompeted other distractions on offer that would ultimately also waste enormous amounts of time and effort.

Management by crisis

The scandals, crises, "Science says" games and rubbish, outrage narratives, and any other manipulations attempt and perhaps succeed at controlling the US and the world through spam.

Jackrabbit @18
So, you don't think HRC qualifies as a nationalist? She can't fake populist, but she can do nationalist.
I also think she is much too ambitious to have intentionally thrown the election. It was her turn dammit! Take a look at her behavior as First Lady if you think she's the kind of personality that is content to wield power from behind the scenes.

They didn't fall for the Steele dossier. I recall that emptywheel had discredited the dossier during the election as it was known to have been rejected by major media outlets leading up to the election. I think they merely fell behind the others as the outgoing administration, the Democrats, the CIA, and the media chose to use the dossier to 'blackmail' Trump.

We must be very careful ... and not to throw the bathtub with the baby inside.
Don't we already have plenty of evidence that there is no precious democratic baby in the bath? What do you think the Yellow Vests are doing every weekend?

If Bernie Sanders really was a "friend" of the Clintons, then he wouldn't even have disputed the primaries against Hillary.
Why not? Do you know him personally? Can you vouch for him?

Bernie referred to Hillary as "my friend" many times on the campaign trail. He told Politico that he's known her for 25 years but they are not "best friends". That's Sander's typical word judo. Like when he was asked about Zionism, his response: what's that?

The fact is, Bernie is friendly with all the top Democrats: Obama campaigned for him and Schumer wouldn't allow funding for democratic candidates that opposed him.

Then there's other strangeness. Like Bernie's refusal to release his 2014 tax returns. Bernie said his returns were "boring" but when his 2015 tax return was delayed the press asked him to release his 2014 return (Hillary boasted that she had released 10 years of returns). Bernie refused.

Now, I agree he's not a revolutionary socialist.... I believe the rise of Bernie Sanders had an overall positive impact in the world as it exists.
Really? LOL. Sanders REFUSED to lead a Movement for real change. That might've changed things for the better Mi>- like the Yellow Vests are changing things for the better.

What have we seen from the Democratics since 2016? Bullshit like Russiagate, meaningless astroturf activism around bathrooms and statues, and outlandish policies like open borders. These things just irritate most Americans and will lead to more failure for the Democrats and another 4 years for Trump.

Lastly, you said nothing about Bernie's refusal to attack Hillary on character issues and to counter her assertion that she NEVER changed her vote for money. Other examples: Bernie refused to discuss Hillary's home email server, never mentioned Hillary's well known work to squash investigations of Bill Clinton for abusing women (Jennifer Flowers), and didn't talk about other scandals like Benghazi ("What difference does it make") and her glee at the overthrow of Quadaffi ("we came, we saw, we kicked his ass").

And what of Trump? He was the ONLY republican populist in a field of 19. Do you find that even a little bit strange?

We must be very careful ... and not to throw the bathtub with the baby inside.
Don't we already have plenty of evidence that there is no precious democratic baby in the bath? What do you think the Yellow Vests are doing every weekend?

If Bernie Sanders really was a "friend" of the Clintons, then he wouldn't even have disputed the primaries against Hillary.
Why not? Do you know him personally? Can you vouch for him?

Bernie referred to Hillary as "my friend" many times on the campaign trail. He told Politico that he's known her for 25 years but they are not "best friends". That's Sander's typical word judo. Like when he was asked about Zionism, his response: what's that?

The fact is, Bernie is friendly with all the top Democrats: Obama campaigned for him and Schumer wouldn't allow funding for democratic candidates that opposed him.

Then there's other strangeness. Like Bernie's refusal to release his 2014 tax returns. Bernie said his returns were "boring" but when his 2015 tax return was delayed the press asked him to release his 2014 return (Hillary boasted that she had released 10 years of returns). Bernie refused.

Now, I agree he's not a revolutionary socialist.... I believe the rise of Bernie Sanders had an overall positive impact in the world as it exists.
Really? LOL. Sanders REFUSED to lead a Movement for real change. That might've changed things for the better Mi>- like the Yellow Vests are changing things for the better.

What have we seen from the Democratics since 2016? Bullshit like Russiagate, meaningless astroturf activism around bathrooms and statues, and outlandish policies like open borders. These things just irritate most Americans and will lead to more failure for the Democrats and another 4 years for Trump.

Lastly, you said nothing about Bernie's refusal to attack Hillary on character issues and to counter her assertion that she NEVER changed her vote for money. Other examples: Bernie refused to discuss Hillary's home email server, never mentioned Hillary's well known work to squash investigations of Bill Clinton for abusing women (Jennifer Flowers), and didn't talk about other scandals like Benghazi ("What difference does it make") and her glee at the overthrow of Quadaffi ("we came, we saw, we kicked his ass").

And what of Trump? He was the ONLY republican populist in a field of 19. Do you find that even a little bit strange?

Gosh and Blimey!
Comment #56 in a thread about an utterly corrupt political system and no-one has mentioned the pro-"Israel" Lobby?
Words fail me. So I'll use someone else's...

From Xymphora March 21, 2019.

"Truth or Trope?" (Sailer):

"Of the top 50 political donors to either party at the federal level in 2018, 52 percent were Jewish and 48 percent were gentile. Individuals who identify as Jewish are usually estimated to make up perhaps 2.2 percent of the population.
Of the $675 million given by the top 50 donors, 66 percent of the money came from Jews and 34 percent from gentiles.
Of the $297 million that GOP candidates and conservative causes received from the top 50 donors, 56 percent was from Jewish individuals.
Of the $361 million Democratic politicians and liberal causes received, 76 percent came from Jewish givers.
So it turns out that Rep. Omar and Gov. LePage appear to have been correct, at least about the biggest 2018 donors. But you can also see why Pelosi wanted Omar to just shut up about it: 76 percent is a lot."

Next up another false flag operation. The thing is, it would have be non-trivial and involving the harming of people to jolt the narrative back to that favoring the deep state. And taking off the proverbial media table, that Mueller found no collusion. Yes, election in 2016 no collusion, but Putin was behind the latest horrific false flag, "oh look, Trump is not confronting Putin"...

Jackrabbit
I've said before that she's a terrible strategist and she ran a terrible campaign and she's terribly out of touch. I think she expected a cake walk and was relying on Trump being so distasteful to voters that they'd have no other option.
I think Trump legitimately won the election and I don't believe for a second that she won the popular vote. There were so many problems with the election but since they were on the losing side, nobody cares. In 2012 I didn't know anyone else who was voting for Jill Stein, way too many people were still in love with Obama. She got .4% of the vote. In 2016 most of the people I knew were voting for Jill Stein, she drew a large crowd from DemExit, but they say she got .4% of the vote. Total bullshit. There was also ballot stuffing and lots of other problems, but it still wasn't enough.
I'm also convinced that Trump and Clinton colluded, but that they did so in order to get her elected. I don't think he really wanted the job. But still, Hillary can do nationalist, and the designs of the Empire would have proceeded either way.

Trump is a crook who takes money wherever he can get it, from subcontractors foolish enough to work for him to bankers dumb enough to believe his financial statements. No doubt he has helped Russian crooks sanitize their booty, but that is apparently too difficult for Mueller to prove. It is not good news that this troglodyte was not indicted, but it is good news that Russia was not found guilty of electing him. Russiagate is an existential issue for the "national security" establishment and just another propaganda offensive designed to justify the largely useless & destructive activities of the Pentagon. It is time to build cooperation not continue the stupidity of US unilateralism and pursuit of global hegemony. Trump and his team have to be removed from office. Democrats don't need Russiagate to do it. The truth will work better.

fastfreddy @ 41 said;"There is no "Liberal Media". Those whom claim to be Liberal and yet support the Warmonger Democratic Party (Republican lite) are frauds. Liberalism does not condone war and it most certainly does not support wars of aggression - especially those wars waged against defenseless nations. Neither can liberalism support trade sanctions or the subjugation of Palestinians in the Apartheid State of ISreal."

Right on freddy, this is a truth that needs to be repeated over and over.

“Exactly! It's the Electoral College that decides elections, not voters.”

——-
What the electoral college does do is make 85% of the voters irrelevant. It basically empowers
15% of the voters in a dozen smaller less populated states that are over represented in the electoral college, most of them right leaning but who may swing either way , ensuring only Republicans or right leaning (economically, ie neoliberal) Democrats have a chance to win. A 15% minority determines the outcome.

The urban centers in the swing states , who tend to be left leaning are also subjected to voter suppression tactics such as holding elections on a work day, voting booths located away from public transportation, long lines due to inadequate facilities, etc

Pft, exactly! Also, from what I understand, the Electoral College has no legal obligation to follow the will of the voters, despite the mess that the delegates make of the system. They literally have the power to vote however they want and to negate or overrule the voters.

Pft, I didn't phrase that very well. The mess the delegates make of the system is the policy of not splitting the delegates in a state. That's what you were talking about, that it makes most voters irrelevant.

One regular commenter here who’s nick begins with “k” made a very sensible comment above against Russiagate, whilst completely oblivious to suffering his own mini-Russiagate only a few days ago. This was in the form of quoting the Australian Aboriginal Supasecret Slavery in the 50s (I cannot stop laughing).

The broader lesson of “Russiagate” is that we need to have an accute filter for political bullshit because the political life consists of hardly anything else. Some may call this harsh, but we should never blame the producers of political bullshit, only those who are prepared to suck it up. Steele was never an ex-MI6 then a British Deep State agent on a special cooperative assignment with US Deep State, whilst Russiagate was a real life Idiocracy imitating art (the famous movie).

In other words, if something walks like bullshit and talks like bullshit, then surprise, surprise, it is bullshit. There is no excuse for believing otherwise and no need to do “research” or a two year special JD counsel investigation.

Twenty-nine states plus the District of Columbia have laws to penalize faithless electors, although these have never been enforced. In lieu of penalizing a faithless elector, some states, such as Michigan and Minnesota, specify the faithless elector's vote is void.

Furthermore, it is very very rare that an Electoral College delagate fails to vote for the candidate that they have been pledged to. From the same Wikipedia page:

There have been a total of 167 instances of faithlessness as of 2016 [inclusive]. Nearly all have voted for third party candidates or non-candidates, as opposed to switching their support to a major opposing candidate. Ultimately, faithless electors have only impacted the outcome of an election once, during the 1796 election ... 71 electors changed their votes because the candidate to whom they were pledged died before the electoral ballot ...

I'm also convinced that Trump and Clinton colluded, but that they did so in order to get her elected. I don't think he really wanted the job.

You propose quite an interesting twist, and one I hadn't previously heard of in those terms. "Colluded" might be too strong a word, but I agree Trump had no expectation at all of winning. He had gotten hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free publicity in his primary and election runs, and I believe he would have continued to "milk" the hell out of the Corporate Media with the tantrums he planned to have against Crooked Hillary and her blatant theft of the election.

The current essay is about the death of Russiagate, but a Hillary victory in 2016 would have led to the same sort of thing, only with the roles of both parties reversed. All of a sudden the Republicans would have become concerned about criminality they usually overlook, and they'd have taken off after Hillary like a pack of rabid dogs.

Naturally the Corporate Media would have played along, if for no other reason than to maintain the profits they'd enjoyed for the past year or so in their "elevating" of Trump for the Hillary campaign. So yes, I agree Trump expected to make hay from his glorious loss to Crooked Hillary. After a while you'd expect to see his photograph beside the dictionary word "martyr". Or "victim".

Steele dosier is the real conspiracy. It is definitely linked to Skripals. It is not too
complicated to see the link. Steele was heading Moscow desk at MI5, and certain Pablo Miller was a recruiter.
Steele private company employed Miller. Miller recruted Skripal, and following Skripal’s arrest
and subsequent spy exchange — Miller who lives in Salisbury, helped Skripal settle there. Skripalm
very likely continued work with both Steele and Miller. How else he could aford to buy a home.

It is logical that Skripal may have been tasked to help find info on Trump through his connections.

We know that Steele dossier had a number of factual errors, about persons, their names, dates
and events. This is what destroyed the dossier.

Finding out that Skripal house was demolished inside and into the roof is telling.
They were looking for bugs, transmitting devices, etc. In short, bad info
that sunk the report — if provided by Skripal, was the result of either sloppy work, or
DELIBERATE ERRORS, to discredit Steele. And that meant that Skripal may have been
double agent.
So, Skripals are drugged, put into medically induced coma, “resurrected” and then
whisked away.

No, she can't. She has too much baggage. She's viewed as a warmonger, establishment whore, and unpatriotic internationalist. Plus her pantsuits don't inspire the troops.

OTOH Trump's anti-establishment nationalist positioning allowed him the opportunity to play 'good cop' to the Deep State's 'bad cop' in negotiations with Putin to pull Russia away from China. That culminated in the secretive Trump-Putin meeting.

Wow! No one gets it. Mueller knows Trump colluded but he found out it was not with the Russians. Netanyahu and his oligarch friends helped Trump get elected and Trump has returned the favor ten-fold and is now in the process of doing everthing possible to get Netanyahu who is dealing with witch hunt of his own elected as well. There is a plan. All this was very well orchestrated. The frame on Russia was a cover not only for the real collusion but also to ensure that Trump appeared like the good cop with Russia, as he pretends with NK, so that when Trump later hesitates to provide sanctions relief it could be blamed on an ambiguous deep state conspiring against Trump and not Trump secretly in lock step with his handlers. Trump could care less about Russia, or any of the characters that took the fall for him in the sham charade. You all remind me of Hillary when she blamed the witch hunt against her own husband on the vast right wing conspiracy and now it's the vast left-wing conspiracy and deep state.

You just don't get that these are distractions for the bigger picture taking place behind the scenes. At the time of Bill's impeachment, Netanyahoo was also lurking in the picture claiming: The good little Jewish girl Monica saved the farm!, when Clinton almost got a deal done between Arafat and Barak, the Israeli centrist P.M., in which Israel would surrender land that got derailed by a convenient impeachment!

Now while Trump colluded with Netanyahoo and his billionaire buddies to get installed and give the Palestinian farm away instead, and Syrian land and shred the Iran deal and Jerusalem recognized, the Embassy moved and on and on for Zion, you're here all screaming poor, poor innocent Trump, poor Russia! You make me, sick!

So Mueller, discovering who was really responsible for getting Trump elected, gives Trump the best ticket to sail back into the White House in 2020 and that isn't a major red flag, that doesn't speak volumes about who was Chosen by the elites to run the country and carry on the f#cking Neocon legacy which he's doing better than his predecessors, but STILL he's the victim in your eyes blinded by the massive Russiagate distraction! It's a lie! It's a hoax! Trump is a victim of the deep state! Trump is vindicated!

Truly, truly pathetic lack of perception for the truth! There is no democracy it's a sham and you're all enabling the next installment! Go back to sleep now.

The problem with your theory is this: Trump was the ONLY populist in the Republican primary. The only one of 19 candidates. How is it that neophyte Trump was the only one to see the power of populist messaging? Why did so few of the Republican candidates complain about the media's focus on Trump?

We might pause here to consider how those other 18 candidates are connected to the Deep State or got certain perks for going along:

- Jeb Bush is son of Bush Sr, a former CIA Director.

- Marco "Rubio Robotico" is Cuban American and now leading the charge against Venezuela.

- Ted Cruz is also of Cuban descent and his wife was a Goldman executive. Trump campaigned for "Lyin' Ted Cruz' in the 2018 Senate election.

- Mike Huckabee's daughter is Press Secretary.

- Ben Carson became HUD secretary.

- Chris Christy became head of Trump transition team and was rumored for more but fell out of favor.

The strongest independent contenders: (like John Kasich and Rand Paul) could not compete against the media attention on Trump and those he interacted with most: Bush, Cruz, Rubio. The independents then had to share media attention with the "auditioning candidates" (those not expecting to win but to maneuver into a high-level job) like: Carson, Christy, Fiorina, and Huckabee.

Now that Russiagate's over, can everyone finally stop treating Trump like he's an innocent victim? Wow! No one gets it. Mueller knows Trump colluded but he found out it was not with the Russians. Netanyahu and his oligarch friends helped Trump get elected and Trump has returned the favor ten-fold and is now in the process of doing everything possible to get Netanyahoo who is dealing with a witch hunt of his own elected as well. There is a plan. All this was very well orchestrated. The frame on Russia was a cover not only for the real collusion but also to ensure that Trump appeared like the good cop with Russia, as he pretends with NK, so that when Trump later hesitates to provide sanctions relief it could be blamed on the evil shadowy deep state conspiring against Trump and not Trump secretly in lock step with his handlers. Trump could care less about Russia, or any of the characters that took the fall for him in the sham charade. You all remind me of Hillary when she blamed the witch hunt against her own husband on the vast right wing conspiracy and now it's the vast left-wing conspiracy and deep state.

You just don't get that these are massive distractions for the bigger picture taking place behind the scenes. At the time of Bill's impeachment, Netanyahoo was also lurking in the picture claiming: The good Joo wish girl Monica saved the farm!, when Clinton almost got a deal done between Arafat and Barak, the Israeli centrist P.M., a deal in which Israel would surrender land it got derailed by a convenient impeachment!

Now while Trump colluded with Netanyahoo and his billionaire buddies to get installed and give the Palestinian farm away instead, and Syrian land and shred the Iran deal, Jerusalem recognized, the Embassy moved and on and on for Israel, you're here all crying poor, poor innocent Trump, poor Russia!

So Mueller, discovering who was really responsible for getting Trump elected, gives Trump the best ticket to sail back into the White House in 2020 and that isn't a major red flag, that doesn't speak volumes about who was Chosen by the elites to run the country and carry on the damn Neocon legacy which he's doing better than his predecessors, but STILL he's the victim in your eyes blinded by the massive Russiagate distraction! It's a lie! It's a hoax! Trump is a victim of the deep state! Trump is vindicated! Oh bruuther!

Truly, truly pathetic lack of perception for the truth! There is no democracy, it's a sham and you're all enabling the next installment! Now go back to sleep.

The problem with your theory is this: Trump was the ONLY populist in the Republican primary. The only one of 19 candidates. How is it that neophyte Trump was the only one to see the power of populist messaging? Why did so few of the Republican candidates complain about the media's focus on Trump?

I happen to agree that Trump was the best of a very bad lot, at least among the ones who had an even remote chance because of their name recognition and funding.

Since this is pure guesswork, I'm guessing the others didn't think they needed to bother. The "old pros" tend to become arrogant and too hoity-toity to make any believable "populist" gestures. Another guess is that Trump had some good help - from people he trusted. Probably he paid more attention to advice from Bill Clinton than did Hillary. My opinion of that entire Republican crew is that most of them were either dimwits or too snotty to condescend to make a public complaint. Beneath their dignity! "Trump is just a flash in the pan!!"

Guesswork again, but Trump's primary victories demonstrated even Republicans are tired of the same old business as usual. His election victory told another story - that Hillary was hated far more than anybody had thought. I didn't vote for either of the swine. But even now I'll confess that if you got into a time machine and came to my polling place threatening to shoot me if I didn't vote for one of them instead of Jill S., I'd either say "fire away", or vote for Trump. Trump has been a disaster beyond measure, but I truly believe Hillary would have been worse.

Unless the Democratic Big Brass sticks the shiv into Sanders again, I expect him to 1) win the nomination, and 2) win the election. Easing even further out on the tree limb, my main concern is his VP. I do NOT want the likes of Cheney, Biden, Pence, Palin, or Ryan.

Now that Russiagate's over, can everyone finally stop treating Trump like he's an innocent victim?

Hope it works out that way. Trump has been systematically continuing Obama's destruction of the US government, and for reasons of their own the Democratic elites have been giving him cover for it with their massive invented distraction of "Russiagate".

The good Joo wish girl Monica saved the farm!

As a matter of fact Monica did save Social Security, and I'd willingly contribute to building a statue of her for that reason alone. I was a very slow learner in figuring out what a horrible person Bill Clinton was.

As for the who was responsible for the election of Trump to the US Presidency, for once I'm not going to blame the apartheid Jewish state. I maintain that Hillary is the reason Trump is in the White House, for he could have defeated no other US politician in the 2016 election.:)

Was the Russian government involved for reasons of state? Yes. Is it messy to prove? Yes. Did it have an effect? In a close election, the possibility cannot be ruled out. Was it payback for the American [government and private] 'gift' of Yeltsin? Most assuredly. If it was, is it rough justice visited upon the Americans for the Yeltsin gift? Yes. Are the creeps who were convicted traitors, uhhhhhhh, yeah, but since we are not at war can't shoot them. Do they deserve to be shot,.uhhhhhh yep. No objection here. If the Russians [state and private] were involved is it any different from what the USG has done since say 1893 when it invaded Hawaii to commit regime change? No. Just look at how the US yoyo's the governments in Haiti.

Once again folks, you are restraining your selves to discussing the unconscionable conditions within the box the "they" have laid out for you; commenting only about what the elected and their cronies want you to talk about, instead of trying to figure what should be done to improve the conditions, so the elected are talking about what you want them to talk about.

Comments on B's list shows that votes by Americans since the beginning of the USA government have not resulted in satisfactory to the governed leadership and governance. Popular preference for acceptable Article II executives (P, VP.) is not possible' a situation true since 1789. No vote by the governed has ever elect either of the two Article II persons (President, VP.) for any term of office. The members of the electoral college (EC members not obliged to vote in accord to the popular vote) elects Article II persons. Furthermore, it is clear that the public media is, privately owned, and highly biased, meaning no candidate can rise to equal to the other candidates in public awareness unless that candidate has been nominated by either of the two parties and is acceptable to the private media serving a public media. Next, the money it takes to reach, on equal terms, the masses denies most popular candidates a chance to get elected.

So no matter who the people of the nation of 350,000,000 governed Americans want to head the 527 member governing USA nation, only the members of the electoral college will decide who is to be the Article II elected, salaried individuals. Independent self-determined choice made by 350,000,000 governed Americans is not possible! I say problem number 1.. resides in this dilemma Until that problem is solved nothing else is going to change.

Why are the commentators not talking about how to deny problematic outcomes of elections(fake or real)? The USA has figured out that everyone who wants to have a high level job, needs a license. to get the license a test is needed to be passed, and to pass the test, capacity to perform at basic performance levels is required to be demonstrated by satisfactory performance on the qualifying examination. How could Americans force the USA to require all persons who desired to be candidates for Article II jobs, to first passing an examination and to then be eligible to file a detailed proposed platform, guaranteeing to the voting public, that if the candidate is elected, he or she will follow the intentions and refusals outlined in the proposal. Once the license test is passed, and the political agenda[showing intentions and promises if elected] is filed and accepted, the candidate is licensed as a candidate in the next coming election. All licensed candidates become eligible to participate in the national debates and eligible to receive a pro-rata an equal share in the money made available to candidates by contribution. Eliminating the ability of every one to give directly to a target candidate <= a great step [all campaign contributions to go into one pot, and the pot to be divided equally among the licensed candidates..] necessary to transferring the right to elected candidates from the governing USA to the governed Americans. Basically, it would provide Americans with the means to exercise their right to self determination (that is, the right of the governed to nominate and elect their own candidates and to demand that those candidates conduct their affairs while serving in office in accord to the political platform which qualified them to run for office)?

Hillary didn't need to collude with DNC against Sanders. Sanders was already playing the sheepdog role.

And Hillary didn't need to insult Sanders progressives by bringing Debra Wasserman-Shultz into her campaign, or berate a Black Lives Matters activist, or reject a minimum wage increase (after taking $750,000 from Goldman Sachs for a speech), or insult white voters as "deplorables".

Seasoned politicians like Hillary do not make such mistakes. Especially if their life-long goal is to be the first woman President.

She was an arrogant candidate who had a bad history and who ran a bad campaign on policies that few were interested in or even concerned about. Her campaign was so bad that she couldn't even be bothered to visit one of the most electoral important states, Wisconsin. And she started too many wars and Middle America was tired of losing their children to her manufactured wars. How any one can expect to win after describing half the population as "deplorables" is beyond belief.

.....while political newbie Trump did everything right...

That he was a political newbie was his USP, while Clinton was tainted with all her past failures. Trump needed to do very little right because people understood he was dodgy but that didn't matter when compared to Clinton.

...is not credible

Actually it's highly credible, much more so than any claims it was a plot between Clinton or Trump, plot by the Deep State or that Putin got his man elected which are all quite frankly ridiculous suggestions..

Trump could've defeated any candidate if there was Deep State collusion.

The Deep State wanted Clinton because they considered her solid on foreign policy while Trump was a flake when it came to foreign policy. Trump's advantage was that the Deep State was asleep at the wheel because they were certain The Best Prepared Candidate Ever ™ was going to win.

well, russiagate might be finished, but the Trump/Clinton collusiongate forges ever ahead. god knows when our special prosecutor will wrap things up, my guess is never, it's risk-free, and one can drone on about the unverifiable in utter monotony 'til the fucking cows come home without getting a milimeter closer to anything substantive. to be fair, though, i'd be remiss for not mentioning the fact that some collusion certainly exists between these deviant entities, and no doubt the flight logs from the lolita express would bear this out.

Looks like things are stirring in Venezuela. Two Russian military aircraft, an An-124 and an Il-76, have landed at Caracas carying (apparently) military personnel and hardware. Intriguingly, the Antonov flew out of Latakia.

*sigh* does anyone read this before posting, even cursorily ? ? ?
as karlo correctly noted: CAITLIN, not Catlin...
Great Broad from the same mold as Molly Ivins... (geez, i miss her so much, SHE would stand up to both the rethug and dem'rat gasbags...)
.
i am not a grammar nazi, valuing substance over style; BUT, at some point the sheer number of careless, lazy, typos, egregious misspellings and such become too much...
.
oh, and as far as russiagate being dead, it won't be dead until the dem'rats say its dead... quite fucking frankly, what is *MOST* interesting to me, is that mueller didn't dig up essentially anything else ? ! ? ! ? wow, i AM impressed..

Ken back up @ #4 understands what really happened in 2016. I am just continuously astonished that so many otherwise smart people do not.

Ken's very accurate assertion that Trump was not who the establishment intended to win the election, that instead Trump's victory represented the American people throwing their sabots into the machinery to wreck it directly contradicts Jackrabbit's (and some others) unswerving faith that the establishment was actually playing 42 dimensional chess and really intended a Trump victory all along. This, of course, is silly as the establishment's strategists are the opposite of intelligent and cannot even play conventional 2D chess. The only place where these people are smart is in their Dunning-Kruger effect afflicted, campus safe-spaced, everyone-gets-a-trophy, Gardner-esque alternative intelligence personal delusion bubbles that American culture has been deliberately imprinting on its youth for generations. Jackrabbit and his crowd would have you believe that the establishment is infallible and doesn't make mistakes, thus by their definition Trump must have been the establishment's intended victor of the 2016 elections. With this bias in place they then mutilate the evidence to fit the narrative with the underlying assumption being that the establishment is omniscient and omnipotent.

But of course we are seeing the imperial establishment's errors and mistakes on almost a daily basis these days. To be sure the rate of mistake-making is higher now than before Trump was elected, but that trend had started long (as in decades) before the 2016 elections. Their regime change operations have been failing spectacularly for years, with America's 2016 elections (change of regimes from Obama -> Clinton) just being another one of those regime change failures. Do you really imagine the imperial establishment just doesn't care about people cluing into their true motivations from Trump blurting out that the attacks on Venezuela are to get their oil? Or that the kidnapping of Chinese business superstar Meng Wanzhou is politically motivated? Or that the US is going to be removing its troops from Syria? These are all just incredibly wise and far-sighted moves in a game of 42 dimensional chess?

No, russiagate was a massive screw-up that was born out of the union of stupidity and panic over the failure of the most important regime change operation in history; a regime change operation that the imperial establishment felt certain they had made foolproof by providing a hideously unelectable foil for their chosen candidate Clinton.

Now Jackrabbit will suggest that I (and perhaps Ken from above as well) are claiming that Trump is some outsider who deliberately upset the imperial establishment's carefully laid plans. I know he is going to do so because that has been his reaction every single time I have raised this point on MoA. This is at best disingenuous of Jackrabbit as I quite clearly state that Trump was part of The Show. Trump happily played the role of the antagonist; a villain to be a theatrical foil for the obvious protagonist Clinton. The establishment wanted Clinton because she was already fully versed and up to speed on all of the empire's black ops and regime change schemes. It is obvious that Trump, to this day, has not yet been briefed by the CIA on these things (don't you wonder why Bolsonaro met separately with the CIA and Trump? You know Clinton would have been in on that meeting if she were president), which is part of why Trump keeps making stupid (from the empire's perspective) mistakes. Trump's part in The Show was supposed to end in November of 2016. That's when the last of his lines in the script were supposed be spoken and he has been ad-libbing and improvising since.

No, Trump is not the establishment outsider who upset the empire's plans despite how much Jackrabbit will disingenuously assert that is what my point is. It is the American people who voted counter to the way that the establishment's marketing and psychology strategists thought they would who upset the empire's plans. How those elite marketing and psychology types got it so wrong is a whole `nother debate that resolves to them believing their own propaganda that they manufacture for the masses, but the key here is that they got it wrong and they messed up and failed.

And that leads to a disconcerting point: A key for any ruling class to stay in power is to project an air of infallibility, this to discourage rebellion. If people believe that the empire cannot be beaten then they won't even try. Jackrabbit's incessant insistence that everything is going according to the imperial establishment's 42 dimensional chess playbook has the rank odor of part of the establishment machinery feeding this narrative of ruling class omnipotence.

The preponderance of evidence points to Trump as another Obama, a "Trojan Horse" packed full of nasty war-making Yinon Planners and CIA False Flag Color Revolutionaries, ie: a Fake Populist who will do nothing to improve the lives of American workers and the poor. In fact he will create even more misery for them in the trailer parks and meth labs.

For God's sake! Israel put Trump in power! All his biggest donors were Zionist oligarchs and friends of Netanyahu. Trump is returning the favor 10x over! Trump was always a Zionist Neocon and he's proven it again and again with his hires and his actions!

Bill Clinton was impeached over a dumb affair and a mountain was made out of a molehill to derail the peace talks between Arafat and Ehud Barak. Netanyahu thanked Monica Lewinsky for saving Israel. Don't you get it by now? It's always for and about Israel! Always.

There is no democracy. Russiagate was a distraction for who is really calling the shots. Zionist oligarchs got Trump to the White House, and they are ensuring he gets a second term. They are in charge. Mueller is a peon and just issued Trump his ticket to gloat all the way to 2020, all the way back to the White House when there was lot's of foreign influence, Israeli foreign influence, and next week Netanyahu is getting his quid pro quo in writing. The Golan Heights will be Israeli territory by Executive Order and that is Netanyahu's ticket back as PM, because in his second term Trump and Netanyahu are going after Iran together. It's all planned. Russia was one big distraction to lead Americans away from the fact that the U.S. Government is 100% controlled by Israel and Zionists, and they helped him beat Hillary, and maybe, Jackrabbit is right, she stepped aside and made deliberate blunders because Zionists wanted Trump to win, not her. She couldn't deliver what he's delivering within the constraints of her Party. She couldn't deliver the end of the Iran deal and wreck Obama's legacy or deliver Jerusalem, or the Embassy, the Golan Heights or cutting aid to the Palestinians or a deal that involves massive ethic cleansing of Palestinians from their land (although Trump will have a hard time getting that through), but he cut off the Palestinians aid to squeeze them. The Left would not stand for undoing Obama's legacy or radical breaches of International law, so Trump was Chosen, Hillary stepped aside and Russiagate turns out to be a nothing burger that was only intended to distract and Mueller is giving Trump a second term because his Zionist masters want Trump back for 4 more years.

Take it easy, art guerrilla @91! b is German and Caitlin (properly spelled CaitrÍona) is a Gaelic name like Síle or Seamus or Máirín that is tough for non-native speakers to get right. Maybe you should write your complaint to b in German to be sure he understands what your beef is? Just be sure your German spelling and grammar is impeccable!

As for Mueller (or is it Müeller?) not digging up anything else, my guess is that is due to the deep state (CIA) being largely satisfied with Trump's performance with regards to Israel, Venezuela, China, Russia, Iran, etc. The deep state thought that perhaps Trump had double-crossed them by not taking a dive in the 2016 elections and that he must have sold out to some higher bidder. This is because the deep state (CIA) is mostly stupid and delusional. Now that they are reassured that Trump really is on their side and the election failure was all just a mistake they are calling off the dogs to focus on more important things like assassinating Maduro and toppling Iran's government. Expect the CIA's Operation Mockingbird mass media like the CIA News Network (CNN) and the New York Langley Times to tone down their anti-Trump hysteria a little now.

>> Ken's very accurate assertion that Trump was not who the establishment intended to win the election

The establishment BigLie Media does not give copious free airtime to candidates who won’t support the establishment. Trump name-dropped Bolton during his campaign and hired him. Trump is as much “their” man as Killary, for that and many other reasons.

Indeed, one not mentioned is that the regular people in or supporting the military tend to hate the Clinton Crime Family. That grew worse and worse over the email scandal. It’s critically important that the people to whom you issue guns and often-illegal orders not hate their new CIC. Rigging the final vote in favor of Trump was the safe choice.

All Trump’s actions since then prove he is their man.

>> air of infallibility
More important than that is the illusion of a working democracy, a working political system. “Letting the people choose a rebel” keeps people invested in the system for another four or even eight years.

After those eight years:
- millions of teenagers turn into a new generation of naive voters
- a small subset of naive voters become less naive
- millions of relatively savvier voters die off
The loss of knowledge via this turnover contributes to maintaining the status quo.

Do some regular MoA readers really believe the establishment would give lots of free airtime to a candidate and let that candidate “win” a primary without being vetted?

Does anyone think that an establishment that manipulates political systems around the globe is going to refrain from practicing its trade domestically and risk its ruin?

I used to suffer a bit of cognitive dissonance: Since our leaders believe in and practice democracy domestically, why do we support so many dictatorships abroad? The events of 2016 made me reframe this question. Now, it’s a simple statement: our leaders don’t support democracy anywhere. (What do they support? They maintain and extend the power of the oligarchy that handsomely rewards them.)

Are people daft? Is it impossible for them to comprehend that Trump could be entirely pro-establishment and working 100% with the establishment while Clinton was the one the establishment was maneuvering towards the White House? Is it so difficult to grasp that Trump was a willing participant in that operation to enthrone Clinton? At least Jackrabbit called the elections part of The Show which indicates understanding that it is at least partially scripted, and that Trump was in on the script. Why is it so difficult to comprehend then that Trump was playing the role of villain to be a foil for Clinton?

Yes, Trump mentioned Bolton during his election. This is because he correctly assumed (or was told) that associating with a mutant psycho death walrus like Bolton would be a big turn-off for many American voters that would drive them into the Clinton camp. WTF more could Trump do? Promise to pardon Charles Manson and make him a part of his Cabinet if he wins? Even mentioning Bolton should have sunk Trump's chances for victory, but going any more extreme than that risks blowing the cover for the election farce and causing the audience to refuse to suspend disbelief in The Show.

People didn't vote for Trump. They voted to sabotage the establishment's game.